Popularity of GSOE's "Early Completion Option" for Fast-Track Teacher Certification Prompts Expansion to Fresno Via Teleconference

Fresno – Thursday, December 7, 2006 -- Fresno-area teacher candidates can now take advantage of the fast-track route to a teaching credential through Alliant International University’s Early Completion Option Program. Alliant remains the only California Institution to offer such a program. Through this expansion, Alliant’s Graduate School of Education (GSOE) provides a new source of dedicated and determined teachers to Fresno area School Districts.

The Early Completion Option (ECO) program, specifically designed by Alliant’s Graduate School of Education (GSOE), supports candidates who want to take this alternative 2-semester credentialing route. Launched just this year, the ECO enables candidates who pass the Teaching Foundations Examination (TFE) to enter the classroom as paid teachers, bypass most traditionally required education coursework, earn a credential in nine months, and benefit from an intensive mentoring support system. The ECO was developed to respond to teacher shortages, particularly in inner-city and charter schools, and to encourage highly-qualified career-changers to enter the classroom.

Jerry Mishkin, a student in Alliant’s San Francisco ECO program who has taught in an Oakland charter school, said, “I was so frustrated by having to jump through all these hoops to get credentialled. I just knew there had to be an easier way! I searched all around and finally found the website for the test. It's an incredible test, but no one knows about it! Anyone who passes gets full credit for all the methodology classes. That’s approximately 540 hours of class work, not including homework and papers. That test can save you up to about $5000 in tuition and fees.”

The GSOE initially offered the ECO only in San Francisco. Following the success of the program and in response to student demand, the program expanded to San Diego and Los Angeles in June, where it offers rolling admission through the summer.

Alliant’s ECO Offers Mentoring and Intensive Classroom Support

Key benefits of Alliant’s ECO program are the intense in-classroom support teachers receive from their mentors, and a seminar series that addresses the topics most often cited in research as critical for new teachers’ classroom success, such as advanced classroom management and working with California’s diverse urban populations. The streamlined program, which results in substantial cost and time savings for qualified new teachers, removes barriers that have kept qualified candidates from teaching.

According to education experts who recently testified before a Senate panel studying the issue, California’s teacher shortage could be as high as 100,000 within 10 years. Other studies place the number at 200,000. The need to devise ways to attract career changers to teaching and promote alternative credentialing routes has therefore never been more critical. Dr. Karen Webb, Dean of Alliant’s Graduate School of Education, said, "California’s children deserve great teachers and this new program will help us ensure that we are attracting the best and the brightest to our public classrooms.”

Geoffrey Cox, President of Alliant International University, said, “Everyone knows that a great teacher can make a tremendous impact on a child’s life, so as a nation, we need to do a better job of attracting our most passionate and high-achieving individuals to the classroom. Karen Webb, dean of Alliant’s Graduate School of Education, has created programs that reflect excellence and the innovative thinking required to meet the challenges of education today and in the future. With the ECO option we might be talking about an attorney who has practiced law for 15 years and wants to give back to the community, or an engineer who has 20 years of military service. The fact is, many of these professionals have the passion to teach, and they’ll pursue it if we open our minds to the idea that they might need a different path of preparation.”

The Teaching Foundations Exam

The Teaching Foundations Exam was created in response to Senate Bill 57, authored by Sen. Jack Scott (D-Pasadena), Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, and passed into law in 2001. The legislation allows teacher candidates to "challenge" traditional teacher preparation course work by passing the TFE, which tests knowledge of teaching methods. Candidate must then successfully complete a classroom teaching performance assessment as well.

About Alliant International University

An independent, not-for-profit institution of higher education with a history distinguished by innovation, Alliant International University focuses on preparing upper-division undergrads and graduate students for professional careers in psychology, education, business and other social science fields. Alliant was formed in July 2001 through the combination of the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) and United States International University (USIU). Alliant enrolls approximately 3,600 students at six locations in California, as well as in Mexico City and Tokyo.

For more information:

• Alliant's TeachersCHOICE programs 
• Early Completion Option (ECO): Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Fresno
• TFE fast-track route to a teaching credential: http://www.ets.org/praxis
(Click on "Important Updates" for registration information)
•  CCTE Press Release

Contact:

Gratia Bone, Graduate School of Education Marketing Director
(626) 284-2777 x 3026
gbone@alliant.edu

Nicolette Toussaint, Alliant Communication Director
Cell: (415) 794-6956; Office: (415) 955-2037
ntoussaint@alliant.edu